Tales of Heroism in the Eden City Police Dept.

About the Author

This is a short remembrance written by my grandfather Michael D. Martin of Eden, NC. These stories pertain mostly to our family and his time serving in the Eden City Police Dept. Michael Martin was born Oct. 6th 1943 and passed away Oct. 1st 2010. They are transcribed as he wrote them to keep his writing style alive in the stories. Some are historical and some are just for the humor. If you find these stories enjoyable and would like to read more there is a link at the bottom to more of his stories.

Tales of Heroism in the Eden City Police Dept.

I made Shift Sergeant in 1968, I had a great shift of guys. This tale must have been about 1970 as best I remember. I was down in the Draper section backing up my Draper officer on a domestic call. I heard a call come in that there was a fire at Dillon's Boarding House which was located at the corner of Morgan Road and Short Morgan Road. I was seven miles away.

I knew Mrs. Dillon rented small rooms to men who were almost homeless and she took care of the people who needed to hear God's message. Most of these men went to bed drunk every night.

When I broke away from finishing up the domestic call and made the five to seven mile run to Morgan Road, I found that Eden Police officers had all the men out of the building as the fire department arrived.

I later learned the Eden City Police Officer Dwight Denny and officer Ronald Brown had ran into the burning building, filled with smoke, without regards for their personal safety, had crawled along two floors of the building, banging down doors and dragging out men, alerting those who could walk and carrying out others, there was no loss of life that night because of these two officers who did not have breathing devices.

There was a possibility as many as eight men could have died but for the heroism of officers Ronald Brown and Dwight Denny. They thought it was just part of the job, no big deal, go home, change uniforms, hit the streets again... but, would you do it? There was, in fact, a higher calling, heroism, calling her sons to action when lesser men would have stood by and watched the fire.